Manage white thinking
As a technical TeamLeader for the first time, I was terrified. Small managers at the bottom of the middle level are in an awkward position, without more rights to decide the composition of the team, the distribution of benefits, and the promotion or retention of the team. Naturally, they will receive disapproval or even impact from team members on their authority. Therefore, at this time, we pay more attention to the “personal charm” of this person, whether he can solve the problems that members of the team cannot solve, whether he can help others (altruism)…… How to establish a certain personal influence is the key issue to consider.
- Your life is still separate from your work place, and not all coworkers want to have a relationship with you that is more than just a “colleague.
Startups with small teams may get on well with each other and blur the boundaries between work and life. On larger teams, accept that “work is work and life is life” and that some colleagues will never be friends with you.
- Respect the individuality of each person
Each person’s experience, the environment in which he meets, and the things he encounters determine his personality and attitude. Do not judge this person and his attitude from the commanding heights of Morality until you understand the root of the matter.
- Respect everyone’s career path
Programmers are often “obsessed” with their technology, and career planning is more about learning and refining it. Not everyone will consider the whole link of “business-product-technology”. Although this may be a correct path, which involves the what-why-how-do thinking mode of doing things, the team leader can guide it properly, but cannot force it. Everyone has their own choice. After all, “even if you know all the truth, you still can’t lead a good life.”
- Encourage team members to make the cake bigger
Getting things done in your job is only a passing grade. Going the extra mile is a plus. Going the extra mile is important, and it’s more important to show your boss that you’re the one doing the extra. When you have an idea and put it into action to make a cake, the small cake may not be recognized by more people. Consider making the cake bigger and do not worry about being taken away by others. The company benefits as a result of making the cake, but the process (mastery, method) benefits you.
- Always consider recommending core competencies
The current engineering of software engineering is gradually reducing the “irreplaceability” of an engineer, and now everyone is replaceable. What we need to think about right now is how to be the most expensive person to replace among those who can be replaced. Having a deep understanding of the company’s business and products, and able to provide insights from a technical perspective and properly promote the development of products, such technicians will become “high-cost substitutes” in the team. Of course, for technical people, if they devote part of their energy and time to products and business, their investment in technology will be reduced. This is the “crossroads” of career development that everyone faces.
- Technical and business product selection thinking
The technology itself has a strong cross-specialty and cross-field: maybe I worked in the financial industry before, and then moved to a second-hand car auction to write codes. I can be competent after simply understanding the product needs. One advantage is that when the development of this industry is not good, I can timely get out to the new wind outlet industry. Thinking of architecture as a “brick remover”, I can build a small bungalow in the countryside, or build a “China Zun” in Beijing. Of course, we are talking about basic coding work, and the underlying design and technical architecture involved in the two are very different. Products and businesses in an industry are cumulative, and they have in-depth study and research on the attributes of current user groups, user growth, industry terms and hidden rules. Although they can also abandon the original specialty, they also mean abandoning some of the original industry accumulation. Technology is essentially a service to the business, though many techies disdain it. Any company that claims to be “technology driven” will basically die if it can’t make technology work for a marketable product. Capitalists are not philanthropists, companies are not university laboratories, and any state-of-the-art technology must ultimately be supported by a profitable product.